Inherent worth and dignity of every person - Reading 1
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
Blessed are they who hunger & thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they insult you & persecute you & kind of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice & be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Thoughts
- I've been reading recently that it was not that a man might claim divinity that caused so much trouble in the time Jesus lived. Pharaohs and Kings were thought to be god on earth or to have right to rule as a son of god in Egypt, Rome and most other places after all. It was because Jesus the lowly, common man claimed to be a son of god and that other common people were brothers and sisters through him and therefore also children of god that branded him as a revolutionary troublemaker in Judea. I wonder if living the inherent worth & dignity of each person also brand me as a radical today?
- Contemporary prophets that I think of when my ideas are laughed at include Martin Luther Kin Jr., Clara Barton, and Christopher Reeve. Who are your prohets?
Reading 2
Kahlil Gibran
On Crime and Punishment
Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, So the wicked cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you, also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow, but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, So the wrongdoer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.
You are the way and the wayfarers.
And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone, Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone...
You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked; For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together, And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also...
Thoughts
- At the office, it is easy for me to fall into the habit of becoming impatient with the person who has an idea, comment etc. that really is wrong for what my team is trying to accomplish. But when I reflect on this principle that each person has inherent worth and dignity, it becomes a responsibility of mine to respectfully hear them out and then talk through why the idea is not right, not why the person is not right. How do you put this the idea of people having inherent worth and dignity to use every day
- I wonder if t Kahlil Gibran's fast and the sure-footed being responsible for removing the stumbling block for those behind them apply today in cases such as Guantanamo or Capital Punishment?
